August 2005

Hands Off —  Autodig Has Your
 Load Under Control
An early user says that Caterpillar's Aggregate Autodig can make the best wheel loader operator better, as well as reduce fatigue, and improve yard safety.

by , Contributing Editor

Productivity is a key ingredient in successful yard operations. Something that offers potential productivity gains for man and machine is usually worth a closer look. And if that something also has the potential to help in operator training and add an extra measure of yard safety, then it’s probably worth an even closer first look.

Improving performance

Aggregate Autodig is a wheel loader feature from Caterpillar that is able to improve the productivity of both man and machine, an early user at O&G Industries tells Aggregates Manager.

As its name implies, Autodig uses an on-board computer to control bucket and boom movements, as well as the loader’s acceleration, as the machine charges a pile and fills and loads the bucket. This allows the operator to concentrate on steering the machine while getting a full payload every time.

“If you take an operator you have a lot of confidence in, and he opens his mind to trying Autodig, it will make him a little quicker, a little smoother, and more accurate,” says Richard Bottass Sr., an equipment operator for O&G Industries. “Our yard is real busy. There’s a lot of traffic. One of the things I like the most is that I can start to fill the bucket and look to see what’s going on.”

Bottass is a veteran operator with more than 40 years of experience. He has been with O&G since 1965 — and has run all types of equipment on highway-heavy and building projects — but has concentrated on running a wheel loader in yard operations for most of the last 30 years. Working at O&G’s Southbury, Connecticut, quarry, he spends his day loading trucks with sized and washed aggregate, as well as charging bins for an asphalt plant and a concrete plant. During the peak of the work season, workdays can get long. “Long summer shifts are non-stop action,” Bottass says. “When I get done now, I’m not whipped. I feel good at the end of the day — still sharp and not all beat up.”

But it hasn’t always been that way for wheel loader operators. “I remember when you had to pull levers to run the machine,” he says. “At the end of the day, it felt like you’d been lifting weights.”

With Autodig, Caterpillar set out to eliminate some of the repetition in yard loading operations. If that could be done effectively, it would make good operators more efficient — especially at the end of shifts — reduce fatigue, help train inexperienced operators, and allow operators to pay more attention to yard congestion and traffic.

To try to achieve this, Caterpillar studied the best operators and then programmed their patterns into the Autodig function. Objectives included smoother loading cycles, consistently full bucket loads, and elimination of tire spin. In actual use, that should mean less vibration wear and tear on the loader, better cycle productivity, and less tire wear.

As with many new features, Autodig requires a learning curve. “It took me some time to get comfortable with it,” Bottass says. Because the operator can override the system by simply touching the controls, he says that took some getting used to. “Mostly, it’s a mental thing, but I wanted to override it too often at first,” Bottass says. “I had to learn to let it work and trust that it would do the work.” But after undergoing the necessary learning process, Bottass now counts on it instead of questioning its usage and features. “Ask me how I like it and I’ll tell you — don’t take it away from me,” he says.

Blending automation features

In independently audited field tests conducted during the summer of 2004 in Norway, Caterpillar had Autodig performance measured against very experienced and less experienced operators. Autodig was able to match the productivity of the best operators and beat the less experienced operators with faster cycle times and better payloads, which meant higher productivity.

With time, Autodig, and other specialized features for yard loaders, such as the Payload Control System, make the best even better.

The Payload Control System is another specialized Caterpillar yard loader feature that allows an operator to load exact amounts of materials and keep trucks moving through the yard. A cab monitor tracks payload weight and stores the information for later download or for on-the-spot load tickets with an optional printer.

“We don’t send trucks out overloaded,” Bottass says. “Not even one pound. If you’re not accurate, the trucks get sent back.” Bottass says he is “pretty accurate with the Payload Control System,” but is even more accurate with Autodig. “The more it works, the more accurate it gets,” Bottass adds. “And I never break traction with Autodig.”

Sometimes, yard managers don’t like machines with specialized features because setup can take a long time, or machines have to be dedicated to specific jobs, or operators get too protective about a machine and its settings and have the mindset, “Don’t let anyone mess with it, it’s working just right.”

Autodig can be used by simply turning it on and picking a mode of operation. It has three modes — two of them are factory settings and one allows for custom record and playback, a machine clone of an operator’s best practice. The wheel loader functions as any other loader when Autodig is not engaged.

Autodig, on its own or combined with other yard loader features designed for stockpile applications, has the potential to improve man-machine productivity and efficiency. It also should help in operator training, reduce machine wear and tear and operator fatigue, and has the potential to enhance yard safety. With these kinds of benefits, Autodig should be worth a close first look.

Autodig Controls Loading

Aggregate Autodig has three modes (left). The most commonly used mode is automatic pile detection (auto 1), which represents more than 70 percent of the use, according to Caterpillar. The second mode is operator trigger (auto 2), where the operator determines when to start the automatic function. This is useful in very loose and light material or where there is limited traction. The third mode (auto) is a record function that allows the operator to ‘record’ his best practice and ‘play’ it back to automatically run the loading sequence. The record mode stays in machine memory until it is recorded over, even if the machine is turned off. A rotary switch setting (below) allows Autodig to be set for materials of different densities. When set correctly, the loader should never break traction in Autodig. Autodig is not a fully automated feature, such as autopilot on an airplane; in that it does not steer or make directional shifts. The operator can override Autodig simply by touching the machine controls.

Reprinted from Aggregates Manager Magazine
August 2005